How to Upload a Minecraft World to Your Server

How to Upload a Minecraft World to Your Server

Want to keep playing a world you built in singleplayer, or move your world from another host? The panel can import it for you, and for very large worlds there is SFTP. This guide covers both.

Step 1: Find your world folder

From singleplayer

Your singleplayer worlds are stored here:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves\ (press Windows + R, paste the path and press Enter)
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/
• Linux: ~/.minecraft/saves/

Each world has its own folder. In singleplayer, the Nether and End are stored inside that folder, so this one folder is all you need.

From another host

1. Log in to your old host's control panel
2. Use their file manager or SFTP to go to the server's main folder
3. Download the world folder (usually named world)
4. If they exist, also download world_nether and world_the_end. On Paper and Spigot these hold your Nether and End

What a valid world folder looks like

world/
├── level.dat
├── region/
├── playerdata/
├── data/
└── (more folders depending on your version)

Important: If the folder does not contain level.dat, it is not a world folder and the server cannot load it.

Step 2, option A: import in the Worlds tab (recommended)

1. Open your server in the game panel and go to the Worlds tab
2. Click Upload world and choose:
   • Archive (.zip, .tar, ...) if you zipped the world (on Windows: right-click the folder → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder)
   • Folder to upload the world folder as it is
3. Leave Stop the server while importing (recommended) ticked and click Import world
4. Keep the page open until the import finishes. Leaving or refreshing cancels the upload
5. If a world with the same name already exists, the panel asks what should happen to the old one: keep it under a new name as a backup, or delete it
6. When the import is done, click Set as active & start. You can rename the world first if you like. Or click Keep for later and switch to it any time with Make active

The panel finds the world even if it sits inside a subfolder of your zip, and brings along world_nether and world_the_end if you uploaded them. Your current world is never overwritten without asking.

Not enough disk space? The zip and the unpacked world must fit on your server at the same time. If they do not, unzip the world on your computer and upload the folder instead.

Step 2, option B: upload over SFTP (for very large worlds)

For very large worlds or a slow connection, SFTP is more reliable than the browser. If you have never used SFTP, follow our SFTP guide first.

1. Install an SFTP client such as FileZilla and connect to your server
2. Stop the server in the panel
3. On the server side, stay in the main folder (where server.properties is)
4. Drag your world folder from your computer into it. On Paper or Spigot, also upload world_nether and world_the_end if you have them
5. Wait for the transfer to finish

Then make the uploaded world the active one:

• In the Worlds tab, open the menu next to the world and click Make active, or
• in the Files tab, open server.properties and set level-name= to the exact folder name, for example level-name=MyEpicWorld. The name is case-sensitive

Start the server and join to check that everything is there.

Troubleshooting

The server starts, but it is a brand new world:

• The active world name does not match your folder. Check level-name in server.properties, or use Make active in the Worlds tab
• Make sure you uploaded the folder itself, not only its contents, and that it contains level.dat

The server crashes on startup:

• Check the Console for the error
• The most common cause is a version mismatch. Run the same Minecraft version as the world, or a newer one. A world cannot be opened on an older version than it was last played on
• Modded worlds need the same mods (and mod loader) on the server

The upload is slow or fails:

• Use SFTP (option B) for large worlds
• Make sure your internet connection is stable during the upload

The Nether and End are missing or reset:

• On Paper and Spigot, upload world_nether and world_the_end together with your world. Their names must match your world name: [level-name]_nether and [level-name]_the_end
• A world from singleplayer or vanilla keeps the Nether and End inside the world folder. Paper and Spigot move them into their own folders on the first start

Still having issues? Open a support ticket and we will help you get your world up and running.